![\"AI](\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bs-396029789.jpg\")
\nBuild out a team of agents, and you\u2019ll give your customers the impression of being \u201chigh-touch.\u201d But high-touch can mean high-cost: according to Harvard Business Review<\/a>, the average cost of a live support interaction (phone, email, chat, etc.) for a B2B company is $13.<\/p>\n Does every problem need an agent? Gartner reports<\/a> that 40% of live support interactions could be resolved in self-service channels. Naturally, there are some customers with particular needs who require the human touch, but what\u2019s the ROI on live agent support for customers with simple requests?<\/p>\n The other end of the spectrum is scaled support: providing service via an automated phone system, chatbots, FAQs, etc. The approach here \u2014 to provide modern solutions for savvy customers in cost-effective ways \u2014 makes sense. The problem? Execution.<\/p>\n According to Gartner<\/a>, 70% of a business\u2019s customers use self-service tools, but only 9% end up fully resolving their issues. Why is it that saying \u2014 well, more like yelling \u2014 \u201cagent\u201d into your phone repeatedly or desperately hitting \u201c0\u201d on the keypad is the standard? It\u2019s not because customers actually want<\/em> to get redirected five times before speaking to the right agent. It\u2019s because many of these self-service options simply don\u2019t work. And customers know it.<\/p>\n Whether dealing with a person who isn\u2019t much help or an automated system that leads nowhere, bad customer service can be a deal breaker. In fact, Forbes says<\/a> that poor customer support is costing businesses $75 billion a year.<\/p>\n But all hope isn\u2019t lost.<\/p>\n Dimension Data says<\/a> that 73% of customers prefer to use a company\u2019s website for support. And according to Parature, 84% of customers want to resolve their own issue using search, before raising a support ticket or calling customer service.<\/p>\n So the $75 billion question is: does your website have the search chops to scale your service model, without compromising quality of support?<\/p>\n Transforming your website into a support hero<\/strong><\/p>\n Search on a business website isn\u2019t a new thing. In fact, it\u2019s quite old \u2014 outdated, in fact. Millions of businesses are using keyword search to \u201cpower\u201d their websites. The problem is that the technology behind keyword search hasn\u2019t evolved since 1999. Today, when you type a question into a search box, you get back a list of hyperlinks that contain the keyword, but lack the context. In other words, the search bars on most business websites don\u2019t know what you really<\/em> mean.<\/p>\n But consumer search engines \u2014 think Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo \u2014 are a different story. Over the last 20 years, Google has led the charge on making consumer search more robust. Instead of only using a single algorithm to scan for keywords and return blue links which may or may not be relevant, Google has incorporated natural language processing (NLP) to understand questions and intent to deliver actual answers.<\/p>\n So the key is to ensure that the search powering your website is modern, based in AI, and thus designed to enhance the customer experience \u2014 not take away from it like keyword search. Features like NLP and extractive QA (an algorithm that allows your website to deliver featured snippets of information from long-form and unstructured data like product manuals, tutorials, or ebooks) ensure the rich content about your business is accessible for your customers to actually<\/em> self-serve when they have an issue.<\/p>\n This benefit applies to your own support agents as well. Beyond affecting the bottom line, having information spread across a variety of systems affects productivity \u2014 36% of a typical knowledge worker\u2019s day is spent looking for and consolidating information. By equipping agents with AI search, they can deliver the most helpful information in a timely manner, providing a better experience for both themselves and the customers they\u2019re serving.<\/p>\n As a last line of defense, this modern search experience can also be embedded as a customer fills out a support ticket. In real time, AI-powered search can turn a customer\u2019s ticket description into a live search query intended to deliver helpful information, meaning customers no longer need to submit a ticket because they got the answer they needed through search.<\/p>\n Expanding the reach of your content<\/strong><\/p>\n Going back to our two key stats, we\u2019ve addressed the 73% of customers preferring to use a company\u2019s website for support. As for the 84% who want to use search, your website search is a critical piece of that, but not the only one.<\/p>\n Any discussion about search has to include third-party engines, i.e., primarily Google. You can pay Google for higher SEO relevance, but 1) get in line and\u00a0 2) you\u2019re playing in the game \u2014 the AdWords engine \u2014\u00a0 that created other problems to begin with.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t meant to be a deep dive on search engine intricacies, so the bottom line is: branded search on Google isn\u2019t helping your support-seeking customers. It\u2019s serving them ads about your company and even competitors. There\u2019s nothing more frustrating for customers than to be sold to, before getting their issue resolved.<\/p>\n With AI-powered search for support, you can use your search-optimized landing pages and synced FAQs to influence rankings and relevance on Google and other search engines, and even increase the chances of appearing as a featured snippet. When your business controls the messaging, your customers have a better chance at getting helpful results, instead of a sea of ads.<\/p>\n To learn more about how AI search like Yext\u2019s Support Answers can help scale your service model and <\/em>improve quality of support, visit: www.yext.com\/solutions\/support<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/marc-ferrentino.jpg\")
Marc Ferrentino serves as Chief Strategy Officer of